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In this general member blog, we delve into senior PRSSA member Samantha Blevins’ once in a lifetime, summer intern experience. Hi All! I’m Samantha Blevins, I am a senior Public Relations Major with a Minor in Sports Management and this is my third year in … Continue reading In Studio with Samantha Blevins

In this executive member blog, Hannah Bobeen, PRSSA-SE Vice President of Finance, shares the importance of doing what what you love.

Being a college student in the last year of school I’m always getting the question, “what do you want to do after you graduate?” For a long time it seemed the obvious answer was “a job that I love,” since that’s what most people want. However, I never really took the time to think what I really do enjoy enough that I wouldn’t mind being involved with it everyday, especially for an indecisive person like me.

When I chose a minor for the public relations program I immediately went to hospitality management because of my love of travel. It then became a snowball effect with love for travel; the more I learned about it the more I wanted to explore, and when I did explore I wanted to share it with everyone.

After going on a PRSSA agency tour in St. Louis last spring, I had finally found what I wanted to do after I graduate. We got to hear two wonderful, welcoming women talk about their experiences bringing in tourists to St. Louis and getting locals excited about the city they lived in. These women did everything from running huge, city-wide events to promoting some of St. Louis’ most popular attractions. It seemed like if I kept the same mentality about sharing what I love with travel and tourism this would be the right career choice for me.

Now for the fall semester I’m getting my first experience in traveling and tourism with an internship at the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, also known as the CVB. Many people that I’ve told where my internship is at always seem to think it sounds really boring, but they end up being surprised to hear what it entails and how much I love it.

At the CVB I assist the Public Relations Director with everything Cape Girardeau-related, and a lot of the tasks are similar to what I had heard the speakers talk about. It seems that every day has been a little different for me, even if I was working on the same project as the day before, which is ideal for me.

I think what really has made an impact on me to pursue a career in this field is the love my supervisor has for her job. I can see the passion she has for the CVB in just about everything she does, and how excited she gets to start a new project. I wholeheartedly believe the saying ‘do what you love, love what you do” is applied to her, and I want that same love for my future career.

If there is any advice for finding a career that will best suit you, make it something you love and do what you can to experience that before you move on in to the “real world” after graduating. It may take a few tries to figure it out, but it clearly is worth it when you can see the professionals who truly are passionate about their careers.